Marriage

a) Definition of Marriage

We may speak of the married state and of the act of marriage, i. e., the act of being married. The married state constitutes conjugal society, and it is obviously of this that we speak in the present Article- Conjugal society is the stable union entered into by a man and a woman for the procreation and education of children and for mutual support and helpfulness. 5 ’ J‘ 0’tx ‘nvt »ut,e>v From this definition we learn that the parties to the marriage contract must be a man and a woman, and these must be free to make the marriage contract. When we speak of the indissolubility of marriage, we shall see that the existence of one such marriage contract renders another impossible for either of the parties while both are alive. We also learn from the definition that the primary end of marriage is the generation and education of children, for it is by these means that the human race is kept in existence and brought to the proper development of its mental and moral powers. Finally, the definition indicates the secondary end of marriage, viz., the mutual love and helpfulness that the married persons are to find in this state. Of course, both primary and secondary ends of marriage are subordinate to the last end of man, viz., God, and everlasting happiness, and marriage is meant to help men towards this great ultimate end. The ends of marriage indicate that it is a natural institution. Marriage is natural because rational nature inclines man towards it.”It would not be necessary for the mere begetting of children, but it is necessary for the proper care and training which rational nature inclines man to give to his children. For it is the good of offspring that constitutes the primary end of marriage, and this includes not only birth, but rearing and training. Parents naturally incline to the work of rearing their children safely to full maturity. Hence, nature inclines man to a stable union; men are inclined by reason to marry, not merely to mate. In the second place, nature indicates the necessity of marriage in the fact that the sexes are not identical but supplementary, so that there is a general and normal need of one for the other. The strength, wisdom, and firmness proper to man need the tempering of the grace, tenderness, and deference of woman. Without the normal association of the sexes, to which nature inclines mankind, the tendency of man would be towards coarseness and brutality, while woman would tend towards weakness and shrewishness; at the same time both would develop an utterly inhuman selfishness. But the saving association of man and woman, to which rational nature inclines, would not be found in any degree in mere animal promiscuity; it is found only in a stable union of man and woman in marriage. Marriage then is natural, and conjugal society is a natural society. But it is not natural as breathing is natural; it is not a thing absolutely required of every man and every woman. It is natural, inasmuch as nature is evidently framed for it, and inclines man towards it; but its actualization, the fulfillment of the natural inclination, is a matter of individual man’s free choice. The primary end of matrimony, viz., the generation and education of children, is sufficiently achieved without requiring every man and every woman to marry; and hence nature does not impose it as a universal and individual duty. Exceptions are not only in accord with the requirements of nature, but are sometimes very desirable and even necessary. Mankind taken collectively, i. e., as a group, is bound by the obligation of the natural law to marriage and the conjugal society; but taken distributively, i. e., as individuals, mankind is not so bound. Hence, it is lawful for anyone (otherwise free) to marry or to remain single. Those who choose to remain single are bound to the life of celibacy in perfect personal continence. Among Catholics, marriage is a sacrament. Christ raised this holy office of nature to the supernatural and sacramental order. Now, it is not only the right of the Church to fix the conditions for the reception of a Sacrament; it is her duty. Hence, the Church is bound to legislate upon the subject of marriage, and that in such a way as her great wisdom understands to be necessary and useful for the eternal welfare of her children, and, indeed, of all mankind. The Church faithfully fulfills this obligation. If her marriage laws seem to cause inconvenience; if persons not of the faith (and persons cold in the faith) are heard to grumble and complain about the matter; if thwarted human perversity speaks out against the Church as meddlesome—then it is to be remembered that the Church is doing the thing that Christ gave her to do, and that those who complain of the Church in such a serious matter are, whether they know it or not, complaining of Christ Himself.

b) The Unity of Marriage

By the unity of marriage is meant the stable union of one man and one woman. States opposed to unity are polygamy, or plurality of wives, and polyandry, or plurality of husbands. Both polygamy and polyandry are opposed to the natural law. This fact is evident from the ends of marriage as a natural office. Marriage, as we have seen, is a natural state, established for the achievement of certain ends. Anything, therefore, which opposes the attaining of these ends, is opposed to the natural office and state of marriage. But what is opposed to a natural office and state is opposed to the natural law itself. In speaking of polygamy and polyandry, therefore, we shall show that they are opposed to the ends of marriage, and this will demonstrate the fact that they are opposed to the natural law, and hence always unlawful and forbidden. Polyandry would give several heads to one family; it would render doubtful, and insolubly doubtful, the matter of determining the father of each child; the duty of educating the children could (and would) be shirked and neglected by all the husbands, for none of them could know with certitude that he had a duty towards this or that child. Thus, polyandry defeats the primary end of marriage. It also defeats the secondary end of marriage, for who is there that can even imagine a wife and several husbands bonded together in love, and lending one another mutual support and help ? , Polygamy is opposed to the natural law as a degradation of woman, for it makes wives little (if anything) more than slaves. Again, it thwarts the secondary end of marriage, for it would lead (and has led, wherever practiced) to bitterness, jealousy, domestic strife, and great unhappiness.

Another reason why polygamy and polyandry must be considered unnatural is found in the fact that they cannot endure; human nature simply will not stand them for any length of time. Speaking of the reputed disappearance of polygamy from among the Mormons, Mr. G. K. Chesterton has an interesting word to say (cf. “The Uses of Diversity”, p. 184) : “Seriously speaking, however, I have little doubt that Elder Ward speaks the substantial truth, and that polygamy is dying, or has died, among the Mormons. My reason for thinking this is simple: it is that polygamy always tends to die out. Even in the East I believe that, counting heads, it is by this time the exception rather than the rule. Like slavery, it is always being started, because of its obvious conveniences. It has only one small inconvenience, which is that it is intolerable.” To conclude: The unity of marriage is a requisite of the natural law. Unity is a property or attribute of true marriage, i. e., a quality that is necessarily consequent upon the very nature of marriage.

c) The Indissolubility of Marriage

The indissolubility of marriage means its perpetuity. To say that marriage is indissoluble is to say that that the marriage-contract, once validly made, cannot be broken, but remains in effect until it is naturally dissolved by the death of one of the parties. Indissolubility is a property or attribute of marriage, and thus belongs to marriage by natural necessity. Married people may, under conditions that make living together humanly impossible or at least trying in the extreme, bring about a separation front bed and board; but such a separation does not dissolve marriage, and neither of the separated parties is free to marry as long as the other lives. In a word, then, indissolubility of marriage means that there is no such thing as lawful divorce. The proof of this position on the perpetuity of marriage may be undertaken in two ways: first, by showing positively that marriage, to fulfill its natural ends, must be indissoluble; and secondly, by a negative demonstration, showing the evil of divorce. We offer the two proofs: i. Marriage is a natural office, which has for its primary end the procreation and education of children. Now, while the procreation of children does not continue throughout the whole of the normal married life, the training, the education of children continues until the parents are well advanced in years. But it is when the children are reared that marriage, in a particular way, begins to fulfill its secondary end, and gives to the aged couple the consolation and support of mutual and enduring love. Hence, properly to fulfill its ends, marriage must be “a world without end bargain.” ii. That is an evil, and opposed to the natural order, which leads to disturbances and unhappiness among men and gives rise to social discords. Now— as the records of courts, schools, reformatories, and prisons, amply prove—the breaking up of homes through divorce is one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, of causes of these social ills. Therefore, divorce is an evil, and is opposed to the natural order. It is no answer to our argument to say that God permitted divorce, as we read in Holy Scripture. God made the bond of marriage; God can take it away. The point is that man cannot dissolve marriage. God has reserved this right to Himself, and the divine dictum, “What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder,” has taken the matter wholly out of human hands. Marriage, then, is, and must be, indissoluble. It follows that divorce, so-called Companionate Marriage, and Trial Marriages of all descriptions, are contrary to the natural law. No civil law can justify these things. The State did not institute marriage; therefore, the State cannot abolish or essentially change it. But to attempt to change a thing in its properties is to attempt to change it essentially, for properties flow necessarily from the essence of a thing. Therefore, the State cannot validly declare any true marriage invalid. Divorce is impossible. We may close this matter by quoting the words of a writer quoted in Muntsch and Spalding’s “Introductory Sociology,” pp. 184 f.: “The law against divorce was repromulgated by Christ, not as a new law, but as a primeval law given in the infancy of the race. The command, ‘What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder,’ is at once a law given by the Divine Founder of Christianity and a law given by the Divine Creator of nature. It is a law which applies to Christians, Jews, and pagans, to lawyers and newspaper editors, to voters and legislators. It is a natural law. …”

It may be well to add a word here, by way of supplement to the Article on Marriage, upon the subject of “Birth Control.” This horrible device is strictly against the primal end of marriage, and is an unspeakable degradation of human beings. It levels the sexual relation, which God meant to be decent, honorable, sacred to true marriage and subservient to the ends of that institution, to the level of brute instinct. What Birth Control is, and its evil character, may be learned from this brief citation from Muntsch and Spalding (“Introductory Sociology,” p. 419) : “Frequently non-Catholics misunderstand our position on birth control, for they seem to believe that Catholic married couples are bound to have children to the utmost capacity of the mother for child-bearing. This is not the fact. It is perfectly ethical to limit the family, if the method is self-control by abstinence and continence. What the Catholic Church absolutely forbids is the limitation of the family or contraception by chemical, mechanical, and other artificial means. She considers it under all circumstances an unnatural and immoral vice, prohibited by the Fifth and Sixth Commandments.” It must be recalled that the Fifth and Sixth Commandments—like all the Commandments of the Decalogue, with the exception of the day prescribed for special divine worship in the Third—are precepts and prohibitions of the natural law. Normal human reason could have discovered the Commandments without Divine Revelation; it was the kindness of God to man that led to the positive formulation of those laws which man needs to fulfill his natural duties, but which he could learn only by study and reflection, during years in which he should be diligently observing them.

Summary of the Article

In this Article we have defined marriage, and have drawn from the definition the knowledge of the primary and secondary ends of this holy natural office. We have seen that marriage is truly a natural institution, obliging mankind collectively, but not distributively. We have shown the reasonable position of the Church in the matter of marriage legislation. We have studied the two properties of marriage, viz., unity and indissolubility, and have demonstrated the illicit character of practices opposed to these properties, viz., polyandry, polygamy, and divorce. We concluded the Article with a brief but direct word upon the subject of “Birth Control.”